Far From Over: A Billie Joe Story

No...

Yes, Billie, it's me. Christian.

But... how?

I thought I'd pay my favourite man a visit.

You liar. Get out of my head.

No. I'm gonna make you suffer just like you made Ellie.

You're a figment of her imagination! Not mine!

I can be in whoever's head I want.

Where's Gloria?

I don't know if she followed me

I did, the woman spoken of says.

Shit.

Thanks, Christian.

Oh my, God, you have got to be kidding. I will not deal with both of you trying to make my life Hell.

You don't have a choice, Armstrong.

Yes I do!

And what is that? Blow your brains out just like you drove your poor innocent loving beautiful daughter to?

Chris, stop

No, I'm NOT gonna stop, Gloria. We will haunt you, Armstrong, until you get what you deserve

"STOP!" I take deep breaths, keeping my eyes tightly squeezed shut.

Looks like I got to him. I could picture the smirk on his face... if he had a face.

"Listen to me, all right," I say out loud. "Get out of my fucking head or else I will do the only thing I can to get you out."

I don't think you want that, Billie.

"Why not, Gloria?"

If we leave, someone else comes in, dipshit, Christian says.

"Who else did Ellie have stuck in her head?" Gloria's the one that answers.

Herself.

"So... if you guys leave..."

She comes. I sit down on the couch with my head in my hands. I feel a headache coming on.

"Why wouldn't I want her in my head?" Christian stays silent.

We've seen her, Billie. She's not a pretty sight, Gloria says quietly.

She is, Christian speaks up, but she's a handful.

"What do you mean?"

She, um... Gloria doesn't finish.

When she's not quiet, she screams. Hits her head against the walls, pulls her hair out...

"Where is she?"

Where do you think? For once, it wasn't sarcastic.

"Heaven?"

I'm sorry, Billie, Gloria says.

"What's that supposed to mean?" It's Gloria's turn to stay quiet.

She's in the place the suicidals go before they go to either Heaven or Hell, Christian informs me. She killed herself because of her memories. Now she's at one of the levels of In-Between to rethink her decision. I think about this for a few seconds.

"So what, they lock her in a room with nothing but the very thing she tried running from?"

Pretty much, Gloria says. If she doesn't change, she either stays there if they think she can heal, or she goes to Hell for her sin if they think otherwise.

"Isn't there another option?"

Two, Christian says. Gloria quietly gasps.

There's only one, Billie

Don't lie to him, Glory.

"I want the truth. How many other options are there for her?"

Two, Christian says. One is she goes to Heaven if she learns to live with what happened to her.

"What's the other one?" Gloria sighs.

She can come back to Earth if she decides that's the only way to deal with her past. My eyes widen.

"How long can she stay here if she wants that?"

As long as it takes for her to move on. Once she makes that decision, she can't un-choose. She'll be stuck here as if she never left.

"But everyone will know she died-"

That's why there's a rule.

"What rule?"

The rule, Gloria starts, is only five people can know she's here. You'd be one of them, and then whoever else she wants to have a last talk with.

"What if it takes up to a year to get her to move on?"

She won't age, Christian says. How she died is how she'll stay for the rest of forever.